My paternal grandfather, Yankel Girshevich Paskov,
was born in 1864 in one of the small Jewish enclaves in Chernigovski Province.
He was adopted and brought up by his foster father, Girsh Paskov.
The last name given to him at birth was Reizen,
but there is no information about his birth mother.
People said that his foster father wasn't drafted into the army,
because he was the father of an only son and that is why he adopted my grandfather.
I don't know if this was true, or if there were other reasons.
Grandfather finished Hebrew school and was a true believer,
following Jewish tradition, going to synagogue.
He was a member of the Jewish community.
He circumcised his sons, but wasn't Orthodox.
This portrait was taken in a photo studio
and therefore Grandfather was in a white shirt and tie.
He was usually dressed much more simply.
I saw him as a child when I came to Starodub in the summertime.
Grandfather wrote postcards in Yiddish back and forth with his son, my father, quite often.
Grandfather wrote the last two on August 3 and 4, 1941, and then the Germans occupied Starodub.
Like all the Jews of Starodub,
after ten days my father's parents were sent to a ghetto-camp
which was built on a former farmstead in Belovshchina.
Each Jew was allowed to bring as many things as he could carry one time;
all other belongings were confiscated.
After three days, all the men were shot.
